Making Characters Act

WLC 1.3: Say, "The Princess?"

The wizard's daughter loosened her posture as she stared into the dark backroom. "Please, come out here," she says, her eyes aglow.

At the sound of shuffling behind the wizard, the old gecko sighs, "Fine, do it."

A smaller gecko in a ragged brown dress scurries quickly next to, and hides behind, the wizard. "Nana Ling," she whispers, "Who is that?"

"Don't act like ya weren't listening," says the wizard Ling, her focus still on her own daughter.

Said daughter takes a few steps forward, around the fire, and leans down. "I'm Jevoi, your mother," she says, smiling for the first time in months. "What's your name?"

The little gecko leans out from behind Ling and looks at her nana. Upon seeing a faint nod, she says, "Dalini. My name's Dalini."

"Dalini," Jevoi repeats, "What a beautiful name: Princess Dalini." Dalini tilts her head in confusion. In response, Jevoi stands tall again. "That's right," she says, "I am the Dead Sun Empress, ruler of the Inner Dark." She pauses, looking over her little doppelganger. "And that makes you-"

Ling scoffs. "Still trying to rename Inner Glow?"

"It hasn't glowed in eight years, Mum," says Jevoi, her eyes darting to the wizard's bone-infused hat rim which masks her.

"And whose fault is that, Jevoi?" asks Ling, leaning back so that Jevoi could see her face again, the face they share.

WLC 6.4: They're on a Path in the Woods

Adjusting the tie on her red hood, a young lycan, barely a gnome tall, looks down the trail into the woods. The birds are singing, bugs are buzzing, and sun shining through the canopy. She picks up her picnic basket.

"Do you really have to follow me?" she asks the dark-hooded figure behind her, "It's just my bunica's house; I go every week."

The masked figure nods. "It's not safe to go alone," she says.

"You're shorter than me," says the lycan, "I'll have to protect you if anything is actually out here."

"Not the poi~ent~," sings the masked figure.

"Don't do that." The lycan skips along the path and her shadow drags behind.

"Just keep your eyes open for any queer sights."

"Like a pond that wasn't there last week?"

"Right~io~," sings the shadow, "Wait, is that it?"

The two stop and cautiously approach the waterfront through the grass. Because of their tall boots, the two feel safe from ticks and other bugs.

The shadow skips a stone across the pond. "Seems like real water to me," she says, "But where's it from?"

"Oh, you two, right there," says a sweet voice from the lake, yet unimpeded by the water itself "You wouldn't have happened to drop a sword in here recently?"

"No?"

"Are you sure?" asks the voice, sounding closer to the girls, "There are a few down here; one is iron, one is steel, one is silver, and one is gold."

"Not ours, sorry," says the lycan.

"But the silver could be useful," says the shadow, "Can we borrow it? Just for today?"

A light shines from the lake as an elf-like woman emerges. Her skin shimmering silver, her hair gold. The water flowing around her as a shawl, barely concealing her dignity. She stares down at the children. She attempts to smile warmly to them, but it just creeps them out.

"Greetings, honest travelers," she says, extending out an open palm, "You may call me Argentalms Aurocor. May I have your names?"

"I'm using it," says the lycan, stepping back, "Sorry."

"Mine was a gift," says the shadow, stepping forward.

Ms. Aurocor rolls her beautiful pearlescent eyes. "Then what may I call you, travelers?"

"You can call us Loomy and Bacon," says the lycan, "It's nice to meet you, I guess."

"Really nice to meet you," says the shadow presumably called Bacon.

She's the nicest assassin you'll ever meet.

Battle Arena Toshinden 3 - Kayin VS Cuiling by Franjogutierrez

WLC 5.6: Baba, You're Going Down!

The skeletal remains whirl through the air. Jevoi covers her head with her arms and tries to keep running straight, Tanglepork attempts to evade by zigzaging, and Luminița attempts to swat the flying bones out of the air.

Gank emerges from the ground and slides back into Jevoi. 'Turn around,' she thinks, 'We have to keep her in place.'

'What are we doing?' asks Jevoi, skittering to a stop, 'What's the rest of the plan?'

'Run at her,' thinks Gank, 'Don't stop.'

With a frustrated groan, Jevoi abouts-face. 'Better be a good plan.'

Tanglepork runs past her without a word, but a look that says, 'You're gonna do something stupid, ain't ya?'

'We're sending Grammy back to Hell,' thinks Gank, bringing a subdue soulsight back into Jevoi's eyes, 'When you've got her in the circle, slap that b***h!'

Jevoi can now see Ioana's silhouette in the dust storm and the runes glowing inside the ground, now several meters behind the lycan. "Alright, you old biddy," yells Jevoi, running around along the storm's spin, "You want Ling? Well, I'm at least half Ling."

Ioana howls again. "LING! VENGEANCE!" She twists to pursue Jevoi.

D: Did she anything else? G: Most ghosts form from one extreme desire; they're actually really boring people. D: What was your desire? G: I guess, not die? I'm a special case.

Jevoi stops at the edge of the runic circle and turns toward the storm. She spreads her arms apart, low. "Come on, you broken clock."

The storm escalates in intensity and speed.

Jevoi holds her ground as Ioana approaches, Tanglepork and Luminița far away in the dark, then just as the ghost hovers inside the circle, she slaps it. "Go to Hell, fur-hag!"

The magic of the runes opens a gate under the ghost and forms a barrier around Jevoi. The gate begins sucking with far greater force than Ioana's storms, pulling her in. So too are the bones dropped like water in a drain. But the gate doesn't close; it keeps sucking. Tanglepork and Luminița are pulled into it.

Luminița digs her claws into the ground, clutching desperately to survive. Tanglepork snags the lycan's leg; her screams inaudible over the rushing wind.

Jevoi hops out of the bubble protecting her and grabs Luminița's arm.

'What are ya doing?' thinks Gank.

'She has my tome,' thinks Jevoi, 'The whole reason we're here!"

"I've got you," Jevoi attempts to say, but her voice is sucked away by the wind. Jevoi, unfortunately, would not be strong enough to lift Luminița in normal conditions, nor combat the vortex, so attempting both only has one reasonable outcome: down the drain.

WLC 4.4: Slaughter-in-Law

"Quick, while she's not looking, try to kill me," says Ling.

"I'd love to," says Angustias, "Is this a game to you?"

"Not like your a threat to me." Ling shakes her head.

"What is that supposed to mean?" snarls Angustias.

"She won't kill me. Ya can't."

"Why did you stop running?" Angustias slides toward Ling.

Ling ignores her and sits on the bed. She pulls out her magic orb and flicks it. "I've been trying to save this world again, but ya idiots chasing me making that a helluva pain."

Angustias towers over Ling. "Then why not just walk in. We both know you could have."

Ling continues flicking the orb, scrolling the images on it. "Would either of ya have just let me in? If it weren't her idea?"

Angustias rages, unable to find words.

"Keep hissing, snake." Ling's eyes stay on the images in her orb, scrolling onward.

For a moment, Angustias' hand twitches, as if she intends to conjure her weapons once more, but she relents, glancing back to the bathroom door. "You will not drive my daughter from me."

"Yeah, I know how much that sucks," says Ling. Subtle laughter comes out of the other room, by pure coincidence.

"You're responsible for that yourself, gex," says Angustias, slithering away and positioning herself toward the door.

"No s***e, demon," says Ling, "Don't worry, ya'll have gobs of chances to f**k it up yourself."

"Do you not fear death?" asks Angustias, folding her arms.

"Hard to fear it," Ling continues scrolling though pictures, "When I know ex-act-ly where I'm going." She raises a hand and wiggles her claws. "Viva~ Los Vicios!" She laughs. "So, my daughter's trophy wife's not breaking my legs anytime soon."

Angustias grabs her own face. "What is taking them so long? IS SHE SEWING HER A DRESS?"

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WLC 4.2: Princess Suite

The empress steps forth from a magical gate into a circular room decorated simplistically in black and gold. The wizard entering behind her recognizes the design instantly. This chamber is glorified teleportation room... and yet her daughter brought her here through a gate.

"The rest of palace is protected from external spatially effects," says Jevoi, "No teleporting into the throne room, or such nonsense."

Jevoi leads Dalini, whose eyes are wide and wandering, and Ling, whose eyes are narrow and plotting, through the door. The guards in dark armor on the other side salute their empress as she leads her family down the hall.

"Was it really a good idea to bring me here?" asks Ling, scanning the structure of the palace: the trims, the scones, the door, anything and everything. "What an oppressive atmosphere," she mutters.

"We can settle our issues later, Mum," says Jevoi, marching confidently, "Dalini comes first."

"Wait, was it?" asks Dalini, hopping after, "Where are we going?"

"Hold on," says Jevoi, sweetly, before her voice turns serious as she singles out an elven maid in the hallway, "You, inform the queen of my return and of our daughter's arrival." As the maid, takes off. Jevoi yells, "And the head chef. Inform him as well!" She continues marching. "Mum, don't stare at the servants' legs."

"Was not," mutters Ling, "Why the cute little dresses?"

Jevoi leads the duo to a door and leans down to Dalini. "Now, I had to make several assumptions," she says, "So if there's anything you want changed, we can be replace it." She stands up and opens the door, "Because this is your room, and it should be what you want it to be."

The room was bigger than the entirety of Ling's old home/lab. Fluffy white and soft pink with a few pastels of other colors stand in sharp contrast to the dark, foreboding palace halls. The walls are painted with a cloud motif. A simply massive bed sits opposite the door. A pile of stuffed toys and dolls lie in the left corner by the bed and a bedside table in the right. On the table is a black and gold bell. A mostly bare bookshelf stands in center of the left wall. There are a pair of doors on the right wall; one open: a closet. In the center of the room, under a fancy light, is a small table and chairs, with a mock tea set upon it.

Dalini stares, overwhelmed, unable to speak.

Jevoi takes her hand and gently walks her into the room. She flashes a smug look over her shoulder at Ling.

"This is-s-s my roooom?" asks Dalini.

"That's right," says her mother, leading her to the closet that has several dresses hung inside, "All of this belongs to you. So pick one out and let's get you clean."

Dalini picks out the pink dress in the center, her expression still mixed between disbelief and ecstasy, "I LOVE IT SO MUCH!"

Jevoi stops her daughter from removing her current clothes. "Wait, you need to take a bath first." She gestures with her head to the other door.

Dalini runs over to it and throws it open. It leads to an immaculate bathroom.

"Now, can you take a bath by yourself?" asks Jevoi leading her to the tub, "Do you know how these work?" She points to the knobs by the faucet. When her daughter shakes her head, Jevoi shows her what each part does.

"What's the bowl-chair for?" asks Dalini, as the tub fills with water.

Jevoi takes a few seconds to ruminate the implications of that question and scowls at Ling standing at the doorway. "How have you become worse at this, Mum?"

Mourning Gecko (Picture from TheBioDude.com)

This tiny gecko is the basis of the main characters of Wizard Lizard Chronicles. While our protagonist is human-sized, these creatures are small enough to crawl on your thumb. They reproduce by parthenogenesis (mom lays egg, clone hatches), so they're almost entirely female.

Like other geckos, they can climb just about anything and don't blink. They can also detach and regrow their tails.

WLC 2.6: A Whole Lot of Hole

Down into the darkness the party did travel, climbing down by hand. One of Kalyani's staves carried a spell that allowed Maraja to imitate Ling's natural climbing.

"Do you really do thhiss every week?" asks Kalyani, carrying her entire weight on her hands alone, "Care to ssay why, dear?"

"Plant research," says Ling, climbing slow enough to keep pace while also carrying the priestess' bag, "I'm experimenting with biolumies in the Cave."

"Bio loomies?" asks Kalyani.

"Rocks and shrooms that glow down there," says Ling, "Trying to find a way to farm in the dark."

"For what purposse?" asks Kalyani, "The food crississ issn't from lack of light."

J: It is odd that you started there. L: Well, it's all I could afford at the time.

"If food can grow in the Caves," answers Ling, "That's a reason to get those b*****ds down there to stop raiding other parts of the Glow."

"Iss thhat why you moved here?" asks Kalyani, "And from where?"

"From Ozzel," says Ling, "Went to Lemonbum's Wiz School. Thought my accent would make it obvy. Where ya from, Sister? Ya don't sound local either."

"Her eyess led me here from thhe cloudss of Shheshhaparvata," says Kalyani, her voice more melodic, "Every few yearss, I-"

"CAN YOU STOP TALKING?" shouts Maraja, whose descent was far more cautious, "HOW ARE YOU SO CALM?"

"Breathhe, dear," says Kalyani, "Move one limb at a time."

The light from above suddenly ceases to be; Bobbobo had closed the dome.

"THE OPENING CLOSED," yells Maraja, her voice cracking, "I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!"

J: Why didn't you have any light with you? L: Ya think seeing how far down it was would help? Or seeing the light be swallowed by the abyss? The temptation of looking down would've killed her. J: Point taken.

"Mate, panicking is just making ya slower," says Ling, "Which means ya're up here longer. I'd be bottomside already if I weren't watching ya. Remember why ya're here."

"I'M TRYING!" screams Maraja, "WHAT IF WE FALL?"

"Then I'll jump after ya," says Ling, "I'm a wizard; I've a spell to save ya."

"WHY NOT USE IT NOW!?"

"If I use it too soon, it won't work."

"Remember, what shhe ssaid yessterday," says Kalyani, "Disstractsion. Tell uss more about thhiss lady we're following."

"Okay, okay," says Maraja, trying to calm her breath, "I can... do that."

Last Several Days

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